NTU College of Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences Admissions Campaign

2024

To help position NTU’s College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (CoHASS) as forward-looking and contemporary, we aim to shift the perception from a traditions-bound institution to a dynamic, modern one with a vibrant academic community. Our strategy for the admissions campaign focuses on attracting prospective students interested in Humanities, Arts, and Social Science programs, while also engaging and connecting with current students, faculty, and alumni.

Our campaign, titled “From Today To Tomorrow” underscores the message that who students become at CoHASS can significantly impact the future of the world. We developed a robust content strategy tailored to our target audience involving two distinct approaches. Firstly, by identifying individual school personas, we targeted prospective students with clearer, more compelling messaging that highlights the unique reasons to enrol at NTU CoHASS. Our top-down approach includes school-driven a social media campaign emphasising program rankings, double majors, student life, alumni experiences, internships, and campus facilities. Additionally, we also collaborated with student clubs and alumni for Instagram takeovers, featuring monthly topics that showcase the dynamic aspects of life at CoHASS.

We also used a ground-up approach which utilises platforms like Reddit for scheduled AMAs to directly engage with youth and student subreddits under the #FROMTODAYTOTOMORROW chat topics. This communication strategy emphasizes the transformative journey students undergo at CoHASS, highlighting the interdisciplinary learning opportunities that transcend traditional boundaries.

The Managed Heart: Art and Emotional Labour

2024

Artworks are often analysed through the lenses of prevailing art historical or cultural discourses, mediums and techniques, and the themes and narratives they challenge or convey. Rarely do studies delve into the emotional labour invested by artists in their creations. In sociological circles, emotional labour has been described as the management of feelings and expressions to meet the emotional demands of a job. In the realm of artistic practice, creative emotional labour can refer to the hidden, internal and psychological efforts necessary to produce something new, or to navigate in a society that often prioritises the unspoken, sometimes at the cost of personal agency.

Emotional labour can also be viewed as a driving force in socially-engaged art, where artists use social relationships and structures as the focal point of their work.

Curated by Michelle Ho, the exhibition at the ADM Gallery, School of Art, Design & Media, Nanyang Technological University delves into the possibilities of viewing emotion as a creative force in art-making. By reevaluating how artworks can emerge from the intricate relationship between task and temperament, we may begin to see how emotion – muted, subtle or overt – can challenge preconceptions about artistic expression, identity, intimacy, as well as the profound impact of history.

The exhibition branding features a sensitive handwritten typography overlay that is juxtaposed with the bold formalist title, to visually represent the intricate interplay between the emotional and the structured aspects of artistic expression.

For the House; Against the House 2023: _____ is Dead

2023

For the House; Against the House returns for the Singapore Art Week 2023 with two new motions up for debate. Through a unique debate format where art illustrates the arguments, OH! works with collectors to present selected works from their collections alongside new commissions from Singapore and international artists.

Set to _____ is Dead, the third iteration of the show presents a double bill exploring the mortality of two cherished concepts, The Museum is Dead and Desire is Dead conceptualised by Singaporean curators John Tung and Adele Tan respectively. Taking place within Tanglin Shopping Centre – a mall scheduled for enbloc – the exhibitions’ manifestation at the site goes beyond their topics of inquiry, revealing the entanglements between Singapore’s ubiquitous shopping malls and our cultural identity.

We've created two distinct symbols (a museum and a pair of lips) to represent the two motions as a form of way-finding to guide visitors through the two distinct areas of the exhibition spread across both levels of the shopping mall.

Dispersed across various empty storefronts and corridors, the exhibition design conjures an immersive and unique setting for the various displays. The combination of the abandoned mall atmosphere and the use of neon lighting in the way finding also creates an intriguing contrast between the soon-to-be forgotten past of the mall and the vibrant and eye-catching present of the exhibition.

ADM Alumni Show 2022

2022

The annual ADM Alumni Show is part of the Nanyang Technological University, School of Art, Design and Media’s ongoing efforts to engage and showcase its proud alumni who have made waves in the industry. Exhibited within the ADM Graduation Show, it also serves to create an aspirational connection between the generations of graduates with its current students. We were commissioned as curators and designers of the 2022 edition, titled Beyond ADM.

Our starting point for the curation of works was to illuminate the stories and journeys of ADM Alumni who have gone on to pursue multidisciplinary careers which are not limited to the areas of disciplines in which they've graduated from, with the aim of cultivating a deeper understanding of cross disciplinary creative studies. The featured works and interviews are a reflection of the valuable lessons that they have picked up along their careers, celebrating the possibilities of creativity. Ultimately, we want to spark questions on how strength could be found where differences exist through the spirit of collaboration

Participating alumni are Chen Xi, Harng Foong, Tania May Leong, Chris Tan, Tisya Wong and Woong Soak Teng.

ADM Gallery

2021

The ADM Gallery is housed within the School of Art, Design and Media, an iconic and prize winning, environmentally friendly building, located at the heart of Nanyang Technological University campus in Singapore. ADM Gallery presents exhibitions of practicing artists and designers from Singapore, Southeast Asia and beyond the region. It features works of contemporary art and new media, as well as research-focussed curatorial projects that intersect with fields in the technology and the humanities.

As long time collaborators with the Gallery, we was asked to redesign and completely overhaul the look and feel of the Gallery website and its communication touchpoint which is a showcase of all its past and present shows and its resources. We crafted an expressive brand symbol formed by three symbols of A, D and M, serving as a mainstay animated navigational tool throughout the website. With 'Sleek & Modern' as the guiding colour way principles, an earthy grey tone was applied across the side-scrolling gallery which allows viewers a comfortable focus towards the materials available.

Visit ADM Gallery here